Forward Thinking Behind Me
Up early, got the house to myself for the day. Need to make some noise, move some stuff about. Shame that today was the planned day, it's full cloud cover! Havent seen that in 6 months. Would be perfect to get the posts in to grow this damned thorny flower vine we have, I think it's a bugundea. Want to grow it across the large south facing window, to cut down on the heat coming through there.
But, the project of the day is to turn our front room in to a study chamber. Odd choice that it's the largest room in the house, but it has the advantage of being the furthest from all the kids play areas, and I'm arranging it so that if I need to have study partners over, there is plenty of space for everyone to spread out. Also, due to a major difference in mine and my old lady's "clutter" standards, I can finally have an area that's minimalist as I need it for clear thought.
Otherwise, it's just ticking off days till I start school. The first 18 months in the plan are all basic math, remedial english, and familiarization with current computer software and hardware. Being a carpenter has'nt had much need to be up on the current business software and gadgets. That part should be easy, I pick up that sort of thing fairly quickly.
Which is one of the reasons I've avoided this line of work, school, the whole culture of education pretty much. It's all so simple these days, the concepts are just rote memorization of process and descriptive terminology. Application is where this stuff shines, but school, and all else with it, has been so easy for me. Why bother.
So I went in to retail for a while, coasting along. Tele-marketing. If not for my incredible lack of tact, social skills, and a healthy dose of apathy and disdain for most folks, I could have rode that train for ever. I actually used to think manual labor jobs were for people not smart enough to skate by. The only reason I ever ended up in the field was I needed a job, and a guy on the bus turned me on to a sweeper position at an architectural millwork shop. 6 weeks later I'm fabricating basic solid surface tops, the only guy to be able to work with the shop leadman, one of the few people harder to get along with than me.
And I loved it. It took more effort, thought, attention to detail, than anything I had ever done. The process used mind,body, and skills I can't even begin to quantify. Force of will is a huge part of any construction project.
And to my surprise, though a quarter of the work force had english as a second language, and over half had never read an entire book of any sort in their lives...
There were people SMARTER than me!
Not in the sense of being able to tell you the history of american literature, or that they would know the Big Bang Theory apart from the Solid State camp, but they just knew things. How to easily fabricate a radius of a 15 foot top, 200 miles from the site. And when you took it to install, it fell in place. Like it had been grown there. How to take a pile of acrylic scraps of differing grain patterns, match them, bond them together, and if you didnt know they had done it, you would never tell the difference. It took me 2 years to be able to do scrap fabrication like that, and I tried my damnedest to learn it. Web research, examination of the bonding process and thermal properties. It took a day with little to do in the shop, and a huge pile of scraps, and trial and error, before I got the knack down. My first effort was still laughed at by the guys. Anger is a solid motivator in that environment.
By the way, I got my start in the business from Valentine Barilla. He was the biggest prick I'd ever met, but he knew everything about solid surface. He knocked over my drinks, fucked up my work and made me do it again. Smashed my radios, cut the power cords. Got acrylic dust all over my lunch...
But he taught me anything I asked about. He showed pride in my work to the bosses whenever he thought I was'nt looking. He showed me tricks that whenever anyone else walked in to the shop he'd stop working on the piece. Swore me to secrecy, and taught me that the tricks you know are your bread and butter in the trades, and only show them at your own peril. A good man, even if he was an asshole.
Thats just one example, co-workers, laborers, hell, even some of the sweepers, were as intelligent of any of those poetry spouting, coffee guzzling guys I had been hanging round with. Not to say there was'nt some intelligent original thought there. There was just more of it in the trades. Let's not make it out that there was'nt a fair share of dumb fucks in the Trades either.
Needless to say, I miss it. Maybe once I advance in to the field I've chosen, I'll find some similar folks, people with passion for what they do, and get beyond the basic rote and pattern of a thing, in to those areas that only love for what you do brings out the best in your endeavors.
But, the project of the day is to turn our front room in to a study chamber. Odd choice that it's the largest room in the house, but it has the advantage of being the furthest from all the kids play areas, and I'm arranging it so that if I need to have study partners over, there is plenty of space for everyone to spread out. Also, due to a major difference in mine and my old lady's "clutter" standards, I can finally have an area that's minimalist as I need it for clear thought.
Otherwise, it's just ticking off days till I start school. The first 18 months in the plan are all basic math, remedial english, and familiarization with current computer software and hardware. Being a carpenter has'nt had much need to be up on the current business software and gadgets. That part should be easy, I pick up that sort of thing fairly quickly.
Which is one of the reasons I've avoided this line of work, school, the whole culture of education pretty much. It's all so simple these days, the concepts are just rote memorization of process and descriptive terminology. Application is where this stuff shines, but school, and all else with it, has been so easy for me. Why bother.
So I went in to retail for a while, coasting along. Tele-marketing. If not for my incredible lack of tact, social skills, and a healthy dose of apathy and disdain for most folks, I could have rode that train for ever. I actually used to think manual labor jobs were for people not smart enough to skate by. The only reason I ever ended up in the field was I needed a job, and a guy on the bus turned me on to a sweeper position at an architectural millwork shop. 6 weeks later I'm fabricating basic solid surface tops, the only guy to be able to work with the shop leadman, one of the few people harder to get along with than me.
And I loved it. It took more effort, thought, attention to detail, than anything I had ever done. The process used mind,body, and skills I can't even begin to quantify. Force of will is a huge part of any construction project.
And to my surprise, though a quarter of the work force had english as a second language, and over half had never read an entire book of any sort in their lives...
There were people SMARTER than me!
Not in the sense of being able to tell you the history of american literature, or that they would know the Big Bang Theory apart from the Solid State camp, but they just knew things. How to easily fabricate a radius of a 15 foot top, 200 miles from the site. And when you took it to install, it fell in place. Like it had been grown there. How to take a pile of acrylic scraps of differing grain patterns, match them, bond them together, and if you didnt know they had done it, you would never tell the difference. It took me 2 years to be able to do scrap fabrication like that, and I tried my damnedest to learn it. Web research, examination of the bonding process and thermal properties. It took a day with little to do in the shop, and a huge pile of scraps, and trial and error, before I got the knack down. My first effort was still laughed at by the guys. Anger is a solid motivator in that environment.
By the way, I got my start in the business from Valentine Barilla. He was the biggest prick I'd ever met, but he knew everything about solid surface. He knocked over my drinks, fucked up my work and made me do it again. Smashed my radios, cut the power cords. Got acrylic dust all over my lunch...
But he taught me anything I asked about. He showed pride in my work to the bosses whenever he thought I was'nt looking. He showed me tricks that whenever anyone else walked in to the shop he'd stop working on the piece. Swore me to secrecy, and taught me that the tricks you know are your bread and butter in the trades, and only show them at your own peril. A good man, even if he was an asshole.
Thats just one example, co-workers, laborers, hell, even some of the sweepers, were as intelligent of any of those poetry spouting, coffee guzzling guys I had been hanging round with. Not to say there was'nt some intelligent original thought there. There was just more of it in the trades. Let's not make it out that there was'nt a fair share of dumb fucks in the Trades either.
Needless to say, I miss it. Maybe once I advance in to the field I've chosen, I'll find some similar folks, people with passion for what they do, and get beyond the basic rote and pattern of a thing, in to those areas that only love for what you do brings out the best in your endeavors.